UFC 135's Kosheck willing to stir the pot for a fight, but respects opponent Hughes

http://mmajunkie.comDENVER – The UFC is finally on the same page with Josh Kosheck (15-5 MMA, 13-5 UFC) in booking a fight with Matt Hughes (45-8 MMA, 18-6 UFC) – or so the onetime welterweight challenger said.

The way Koscheck sees it, he’s been lobbying for the bout for some time, and his requests have fallen on deaf ears.

“I’ve asked for it a number of times, and I’m not sure why he never accepted it or it’s never been offered to him,” Koscheck said.

That’s news to the former welterweight champ. He wasn’t aware that he’d been ducking anybody.

“Probably a question for Dana (White),” Hughes offered after Koscheck explained his plight.

The UFC president apparently wasn’t in the loop either.

“Matt Hughes has never not been interested in anything,” White said. “Even (with) fights that I’ve called him with in the past … there was nothing he was less interested in than the second fight with Frank Trigg.”

White was under the impression that Koscheck got the call because Diego Sanchez broke his hand two weeks ago and the UFC needed a high-profile opponent to step into the co-main event of UFC 135, which takes place Saturday at Denver’s Pepsi Center.

“I just never got the call to fight,” said Hughes, who competes in the pay-per-view co-headliner. “Josh isn’t the first one to call me out wanting to fight me. He’s just one of the guys wanting to fight me, and whatever the UFC wants to put together for the fans is what’s going to happen.”

That’s not the world Koscheck lives in, or at least when he gets in front of a microphone and speaks to the press. He’s hardly the first fighter to put himself in the center of his universe. But considering his most recent appearance, you can’t blame him for falling back on old habits.

Koscheck was front and center as the villain – as he has been for much of his career – when he fought champ Georges St-Pierre at UFC 129 this past December. The trash talk flowed freely during his appearance as a coach on “The Ultimate Fighter 11″ and in the buildup to the pay-per-view event. When he walked to the cage at the Bell Centre in St-Pierre’s backyard of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, the boos were deafening.

It’s a sound Koscheck is used to.

But now, there’s no need for that. UFC 135 headliners Jon Jones and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson have taken up all the headlines with a budding rivalry. There’s been “Spygate” and plenty of back-and-forth.

Koscheck can’t summon that, at least on short notice. He respects his opponent.

“He’s been a good representative of the UFC and this sport,” Koscheck said. “And plus … you really can’t start up too much in 19 days. As much as I’d like to, just for the fun of it, Matt’s a good guy. We have a lot in common.”

So what is there to do but fight?

Considering the ordeal Koscheck has been through in 2011, that’s more than enough. The St-Pierre fight left him with a painful broken orbital bone that forced him to stay away from the gym for much of the year, and to such a competitor, that was a far greater blow than a failed bid at the title.

Then, when he finally healed up enough to begin training five months prior, the options available to him weren’t attractive. With most of the top-tier welterweights booked, there were few opponents that got his blood rushing. So he declared he would move up to the middleweight class and fight at UFC 139 in November.

“St-Pierre, I’m not going to fight him any time soon,” Koscheck said. “All the top guys were tied up. So I thought, ‘What’s going to give me some motivation to train hard and get in the gym?’ And I was like, ‘Man, I need to find a big fight.’ So we were asking for a number of fighters in the 185-pound division. Chris Leben was one of the guys that we asked for, and Wanderlei Silva was the second guy.

“Nothing against those guys – they’re good fighters – I just thought it would be fun for the fans and give me some motivation to train.”

Then Hughes came into the picture, and that drastic step was avoided. Middleweight is still an option, of course, but Koscheck is focused on what’s immediately ahead of him.

“This is a big opportunity,” he said. “I know this is Matt’s last fight on his contract … and if he chooses to retire after this, he wants to go out with a win. I’m sure he’s trained hard to face Diego, and now it’s me. I’m a little different fighter than Diego.”

If he’d had little bit more time, he might have been able to add another dimension to Saturday’s fight. This time, he’ll just have to settle for your average, ho-hum buildup.

But it’s not much of a surprise that he took a shot at stirring the pot.

As the UFC 189 tour made its last stop in Dublin, featherweight champ Jose Aldo was met with a torrent of abuse from the Irish fans. It might have been unpleasant, but it might also have been just what he needed.